Prime 95 Reccomended - Completely Lost

[MarkJD]

Hey All,

Was told to get Prime 95 and run it to see if there was any problems. Truth is im completely lost and have no idea what im doing. I recently picked up a machine, its 3 months old and appeared to be running fine / fast with no problems and truth be told it still does appear to be running nice and fast.

System Specs

MOBO - EVGA X58 SLI LE
CPU - Intel Core i7-920 - 2.66 GHz - 8 MB L3 Cache - LGA 1366 Socket
GFX - SAPPHIRE TECHNOLOGY Radeon Toxic HD 5850 - 1 GB GDDR5
PSU - Cooler Master Silent Pro M700 700W PC Power Supply
RAM - 6GB DDR3 triple channel - OCZ Gold Low-Voltage Triple Channel 3 x 2 GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL8 PC Memory
HDD1 - Intel X25-M MLC 2.5 Solid State Disk (SSD) - 80 GB - SATA-300
HDD2 - Samsung SpinPoint F3 Desktop Class HD103SJ Hard Drive - 3.5"- 1 TB - 32 MB - 7200 rpm - SATA-300
Cooling (Case) - 1 x Noctua 120mm Silent fans
Cooling (CPU) - Noctua CPU Cooler

So as i said it appears to be running fine with no problems, the main reason i got a new machine was to play a new game coming out FFXIV. I ran the benchmark and got really poor score on the low setting. To my knowledge this PC wasnt overclocked and i wasnt informed of such by the seller. I seeked help on a forum for FF games and most agreed something was definately up for my score with this system. I posted results and information provided from CPU-Z,GPU-Z,Speedfan and the first thing people said to me was the RAM was way off. Below is a screenshot with the information.

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/896...benallinfo.jpg

Sorry thats large, so as mentioned the RAM settings where set to 6-6-6-18 and a voltage of 1.70v which was unsafe and wrong for my brand. So i was advised to change this in the bios to 8-8-8-24 and voltage of 1.65v which i did. I was then advised to download Prime 95 and see if there was any errors. Well im not sure how this software works really but its showing erros when i did a blend test. I seem to have 8 workers? All of them are passing bar worker 3 and worker 5. Below is the information posted.

Worker 3

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/9855/worker3.jpg

Worker 5

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4746/worker5.jpg


I really just want this machine running well and the game running well any advise is really appreciate and im sorry for the big post but im not an overclocker and not familiar with doing so.

the cpu is also overclocked by a large margin. I suggest you load factory settings in the bios. and rerun the cpu-z

you should have multiplier = 20 (not 21) and speed bus = 133 (not 160)

if that doesn't restore those settings. you might have a messed up bios. might want to flash it with an official bios from your exact motherboard

[Batalov]

From your screenshots of workers 3 and 5, it appears that you run the test for a few minutes at a time? That will not tell you anything about passing the test or stability. You can call computer passing the test if it ran for a couple days without a single error. If you do that, most likely every core will fail randomly. (On i7, there are two workers per core.)

Downclock your memory even more; the idea is to find stability and then go back slowly. If there is no stability island, then some component is defective altogether; if there is, then you have a chance to tune the thing. In BIOS, did you try to "load optimized defaults" to clear any wrong settings you may have inherited?

There are many things you could start with. There may be bad thermal contact of the CPU to the cooler if installed not too well. The power supply may be too weak for the system. But start with basics. Check if there's dust. Check if fans are working. Set the BIOS to optimized defaults, then if that won't help to safe defaults (different BIOSes have different wording). Etc.

[MarkJD]

Many thanks for your reply.

You see overclocking and all this is way above my head. I purchased this PC as was. This overclocking was done by the previous owner. From a visual point it plays games perfectly on high with good FPS. It runs fast, boots up fast etc.

I got this PC to run a specific game, it wasnt until i ran the benchmark for this game and get a really bad score that led me down this path.

It was basically advised that i reset the bios and start from scratch. I also ran something called memtester86+ for 2hours before doing the bios reset and it came back with 81 errors. There are some screenshots attached below.

Before bios reset / memtester86+

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/9671/mem86error.jpg

Did the BIOS reset. Posted below are the screenshots. First of the PC Health Check in the bios, is that the 12v PSU Rail that it is saying is 12.3v? Because speedfan is still saying the same. Please see all screenshots they have all info on CPU/RAM etc.

Whats more reliable BIOS on the PSU reading or speedfan?

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/8187/pchealthss1.jpg

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/9346/biosresetsc.jpg

Is that GFX card running kind of hot for being idle or is this normal

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by MarkJD

You see overclocking and all this is way above my head. I purchased this PC as was. This overclocking was done by the previous owner. From a visual point it plays games perfectly on high with good FPS. It runs fast, boots up fast etc.

Sigh... Why don't people run these tests before purchasing the machine...

Originally Posted by MarkJD

I got this PC to run a specific game, it wasnt until i ran the benchmark for this game and get a really bad score that led me down this path.

Sorry to break it to you explicitly, but you've likely purchased a "lemon" -- possibility with ginger shoved up it's ass to make it seem faster and more responsive than it actually nominally is (read: over-clocking).

Right up until you actually try to use it reliably and deterministically. (An age-old trick.)

Originally Posted by MarkJD

It was basically advised that i reset the bios and start from scratch. I also ran something called memtester86+ for 2hours before doing the bios reset and it came back with 81 errors. There are some screenshots attached below.

Those results are really, *really*, seriously bad.

If you knew what you were doing, I would advise you first try swapping out the memory, then the CPU, then the Motherboard.

But since you've admitted you don't know what you're doing, I would advise you try getting your money back from the seller. If that doesn't work, try removing all over-clocking the seller has enabled. If that doesn't work, simply accept this as an (expensive) learning experience.

Caveat emptor.

[MarkJD]

Well the guy was a reptuable seller. I asked him was it as standard he told me yes. I didnt know of these tests until i went looking for help as to why the system was under performing. I checked things over before buying, seen it run top games on highest settings with no lag and this still is the case.

I did the BIOS reset and the CPU seems to be still overclocking, itself maybe? Its supposed to be 2.67 GHz as clock but its showing up as 2785 MHz (21 x 133) What would cause this?

Im sorry im new at this and apologies for being stupid about it, all i wanted was a stable good new machine to play some good games on. Chances are im not getting my money back so i just want to rememedy this. According to the RAM (http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...triple_channel) it is supposed to be CL 8-8-8-24 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) yet the monitors show it up as 7-7-7-18 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) DRAM 530.6~ MHz NB Frequency 2122.6~ MHz

This doesnt make sense as i did the Bios reset so why are the timings off still?

[lycorn]

Originally Posted by MarkJD

Its supposed to be 2.67 GHz as clock but its showing up as 2785 MHz (21 x 133) What would cause this?

To have the CPU at stock speed, the multiplier should be at 20. Adjust it in the BIOS. But honestly I wouldn´t bother doing that; it´s such a mild overclock, it can´t do any harm to an i7.

Originally Posted by MarkJD

According to the RAM (http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...triple_channel) it is supposed to be CL 8-8-8-24 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) yet the monitors show it up as 7-7-7-18 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) DRAM 530.6~ MHz NB Frequency 2122.6~ MHz

The RAM freq is not a problem, you´re working well within spec. Try setting the timings manually in the BIOS to the values recommended by OCZ. Anyway, I would expect the RAM to take those tighter timings at such a low frequency... may be you have some marginally good sticks. So before messing around with the timings, you might try upping the RAM voltage a tad, from the current 1.50V to something like 1.55 or 1.60.

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/8187/pchealthss1.jpg


From this image i found that your CPU fan speed is zero

it is the cause for all of your issues

please check the cpu fan if it's working please check the power connector on motherboard is it CPU FAN or any other correct this issue and try the pc back on only after 30 min to cool down

if the problem remains check the RAM and re assemble the pc

i am a IT h/w professional if you are not qualified find some tec. support

[lycorn]

Strange post for an "IT h/w professional".
How on earth could a stopped CPU fan be compatible with several hours of testing (with the PC obviously working), and game playing, as reported by the original poster?
There must be an error in the report: most probably the values for CPU and AUX are swapped.

[Batalov]

Or the CPU fan is simply plugged into another connector (AUX).
Not a big deal, even though AUX may not have variable speed feedback.

[henryzz]

The cpu oveclocking you are seeing in post #6 is probably the turbo mode I think. You might want to turn turbo mode off in the BIOS until you have got your pc stable once.
Your ram is designed to run at 1.65v. Less may provide errors(I would think that the 1.5 you have it set to now almost certainly would so don't worry). 1.7v shouldn't really damage your ram as it is a very mild overvolt. Here is an example of someone being told not to worry with a slightly larger overvolt.
Run your memory at slower speed than it is rated for now as your CPU is only rated to cope with 1066Mhz memory(I am pretty certain that I have read 1333Mhz will probably work without problems on i7s. 1600Mhz will need a CPU overclock to work(which I can attempt to guide you through if you want).
As far as memory timings go use the standard 8-8-8-24 until we have proved your pc has no faults. If you decide to run the memory at a speed lower than 1600Mhz then you will be able to run at lower timings.

My summarized suggestions to play it safe and get a hopefully stable pc:
Check the CPU bus is set to 133
Check the CPU multiplier is set to 20
Set your memory to 1066Mhz and standard timings 8-8-8-24
Set your memory voltage to the standard 1.65v
Might be worth turning off turbo mode. This will clear confusion and we can do this later manually.
Check the CPU fan is plugged into a socket which probably will be marked with a name in including CPU fan. Your motherboard manual might help here. If you don't have the original then it should be available online.

If you need help with following my instructions in the BIOS then I will search for some screenshots of your BIOS to be able to give better instructions for your specific case.

Your system based on its specs should in theory for a lot of people overclock to 4.0Ghz.